Today's Devotion
Monday, February 16, 2026 (St. Philip Melanchthon) - John 5:30-47
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
St. John records a monologue from Jesus. It is not preaching, like His Sermon on the Mount. It is not teaching about the kingdom of God, like His parables. It reads more like a legal argument. Jesus is providing a defense as to why He is performing miracles on the Sabbath. For His critics are accusing Him of the sin of “breaking the Sabbath,” as well as blasphemously “making Himself equal to God” (John 5:17) – both of which are crimes. And even this early in John’s Gospel, “this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.”
Our Lord’s argument is “I can do nothing on My own,” that only God can do the things that Jesus does. Jesus is not merely making a claim that can simply be debunked. Rather, He is doing “the will of Him who sent Me.” For if He were merely claiming to be God, His “testimony [would] not be deemed true.” Jesus points to the testimony of John the Baptist, for many of our Lord’s attackers believed that John “has borne witness to the truth” as a “burning and shining lamp” that they “were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” And in addition to John’s testimony, Jesus points to the testimony of “the Father who sent [Him]” who “has Himself borne witness about [Jesus].”
However, Jesus’ accusers have not heard this latter divine testimony, whose “voice [they] have never heard” and whose “form [they] have never seen.” For they “do not have His Word abiding in [them].” They “search the Scriptures” looking for eternal life, but they miss the way that we receive it: through the Christ – to whom the Scriptures “bear witness.” Therefore, they reject the divine testimony, do not come to Jesus, and thus do not receive eternal life. And that is why they reject Him and continue to accuse Him of wrongdoing.
“For if you believed Moses,” says Jesus, concluding His argument, “you would believe Me, for He wrote of Me.” Therefore, the very Scriptures – written by Moses – become their accusers and judges. It is not Jesus who is on trial, but rather they who are accusing Him. But Jesus is not their accuser, Moses is. For “if you do not believe his writings,” argues Jesus, “how will you believe My Words?” These accusations against Jesus boil down to a lack of faith. Our Lord asks rhetorically, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
Our Lord’s defense against all of these charges is that He is God. He has proven it through His miracles, through the preaching of John, and through the Scriptures which testify of Him. The defense rests.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Indeed!